Bremerton man scammed more than $10,000
October 7, 2011 · 10:14 AM
An 85-year-old Bremerton man reported Oct. 1 that he was scammed more than $10,000.
A police officer made phone contact with the man at about 12:25 p.m. and the man said that since November 2010, he has sent more than $10,000 via Western Union to people that keep calling from Jamaica. He said he sendtthe money because they told him he needed to in order to receive the package of money he “won.”
The latest incident was when someone called earlier in the day asking that $350 be wired over to cover the delivery fee.
He sent the money over and later at 10:30 a.m., a caller told him an additional $300 was needed. The man did not send the additional $300 and called the police.
The officer did a search of the 876 area code phone number that the man said the calls were made from. Many blogs wrote that phone numbers with this area code attempt to scam people of their money.
The 85-year-old later said to the officer that in total he has sent more than $10,000. The officer asked why he kept sending the money if he was never receiving anything in return, and the man said because the people sounded so convincing that he had won money.
The man said he lives alone and asked the officer not to tell his children of the incident. The report was forwarded to detectives and adult protective services.
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